2IO 



^-^ajaseekho 



curiosity, or perversity, I shot the canoe for- 

 ward, almost up to him. He tried to dive; 

 got tangled in a lily stem in his fright ; came 

 up, flashed under again ; and I saw him rise 

 to the surface, ten feet away, in some grass, 

 where he sat motionless and almost invisible 

 amid the pads and yellow stems. I remained 

 where I was to watch him and see what the 

 mother would do. 



How frightened he was ! Yet how still he 

 sat ! Whenever I took my eyes from him a 

 moment I had to hunt again, sometimes two 

 or three minutes, before I could see him 

 there. 



Meanwhile the brood went almost to the 

 opposite shore before they stopped ; the 

 mother, satisfied at last by my quietness, 

 flew over and lit among them. She had not 

 seen the little one. Through the glass I saw 

 her flutter round and round them, to be quite 

 sure they were all there. Then she missed 

 him. I could see it all in her movements. 

 She must have clucked, I think, for the young 

 suddenly disappeared, and she came swim- 

 ming rapidly back over the way they had 



